West Des Moines
Famous Dave's

Famous Dave's

1720 22nd St, 50266, West Des Moines, United States

Seafood • Chicken • Barbecue • American


"We're new to Iowa so we've been eating our way around the Des Moines area and trying out restaurants that we haven't been to before. My daughter and I walked into Famous Dave's at around 6:30pm today. We didn't receive a greeting even though there were employees standing there. I approached an employee and said 2 for dinner. The employee spent a good amount of time fumbling for silverware and menus. We were seated and a waitress came and took our drink order and delivered it to us and said she'd give us a few minutes and she'd be back to take our order. I watched the waitress visit with a person that appeared to be the manager, then she visited with other employees. Then i saw her go into the bathroom, I think. She was gone for awhile and during this time my daughter and I talked about leaving because there are so many places to eat around town that we didn't need to wait this long. As we agreed to leave $3 on the table for my ice tea, the waitress came out from wherever she was and looked our way. I told my daughter she was headed our way and started to put the $3 back in my purse thinking we'd get to order our food because we really wanted to try the bbq. Sadly the waitress went to the table behind us and asked the customers if they needed a to go box to which the customers said no. So she left without even saying a word to us. That was our queue to leave. We ended up going to a competitor, Jethro's BBQ and had a great experience. Now I know why Dave's parking lot was pretty empty compared to Jethro's parking lot Jethro's has great food and great service. I don't know if Famous Dave's has good food, what I do know is they have lousy service. I don't think I'll go back to that location but if I'm in another town or state and see a Famous Dave's, maybe I'll stop in."